Doctor the 12th
by WildWitch12
Summary: A new body, new friends, and new adventures. A series of one-shots about the adventures of the 12th Doctor. The TARDIS awaits. I do not own Doctor Who.
1. Earth's Electrician

Earth's Electrician

Certainly not for the first time in its life, a blue police box sat to the side of one of the streets of Cardiff. It was 2015, October 10th to be exact. But the date didn't matter too much for the man inside the police box.

The Doctor had been without companion for a few weeks now. He was lonely, but used to it. What he wasn't quite used to just yet was his new face, and the body that came along with it. The regeneration had gone smoothly, as far as regenerations go. It's always a weird process, getting a new body. Especially because you never know what you're going to end up with. The Doctor's new body seemed fine. It had all the right numbers of body parts in all the correct places. It was just a lot different than what he'd gotten used to.

He was a bit taller this time, and slightly bulkier around the middle. His skin was pale, his eyes were a bright green, and his head was topped with bushy light auburn hair. That it itself was quite a drastic change. However, the biggest difference was probably the muscles. The Doctor definitely didn't look like a body builder by any means, but he had very little fat and could definitely be described as muscular.

Being a bit of a nomad with no specific place to call home, the Doctor wasn't going to let something as simple as a new face deter him from his explorations of time and space. However, a quick pit stop was necessary first. As cool as his bowtie was, the rest of his outfit simply wasn't fitting him the way it was supposed to. As anyone who has paid even a hint of attention to fashion trends would be quick to tell the time lord, trousers should not stop several inches above the ankle.

So the Doctor was on a mission to find a new clothing style to compliment his new physique. Considering his personal fashion expertise, he was concerned that he may be about to face one of his biggest challenges yet. He'd always just grabbed whatever was around when it was convenient. When was the last time he'd actually gone shopping?

After several moments of fiddling with his new hair and considering simply going around looking like he was waiting for a flood, the Doctor accepted his fate and stepped out into the sun. Cardiff was just how he'd remembered it, as he'd expected it would be. People were wandering around, living their lives as though nothing was different. Nothing was different for them, of course. By contrast, everything had changed for the Doctor since his last visit. But he was used to change. He was on his 12th body, after all.

* * *

Claire Hopewell was hard at work at the electronics shop where she had recently been promoted to manager. It was a real honor for a tech enthusiast like her, but her mother wasn't as impressed as Claire had hoped she'd be. Not that she was surprised; she just tried to take a more optimistic view of life. Still, it would be nice to see her mother get a bit more excited about her career for once.

"Does this mean you'll be spending more time in that computer shop than usual?" Claire's mother had asked after hearing the news. "How do you expect to find a husband if you're working there all day? That's not the sort of place that men go to find girls."

"Mum, this is a wonderful opportunity. I'll be gaining such great experience! This company doesn't hire any management staff that don't really know their stuff," Claire had replied.

"Because every man is looking for a woman who can fix their computer!"

Claire knew that her mother was a lost cause. Even in the year 2015, the idea that a woman in her early 20s could be more focused on her career than marriage was too modern a concept for Laura Hopewell.

It had been a pretty slow day, and it was made slower still the minute an elderly man approached her with a fancy laptop he'd recently purchased.

"I tried calling tech support," the elderly man, who had introduced himself as Mr. Nelson, was saying. "And I was talking to this nice young man, but I got confused when he started telling me to click on stuff. My old computer has this thing called a mouse that I use for clicking. Does that make sense?"

"Yes sir, but-" Claire began.

"But I don't think I have a mouse for this thing," Mr. Nelson interjected, lifting the laptop a few inches off of the counter and peering under it as if expecting the mouse to be hiding under there.

"Actually sir, laptops don't really come with a mouse. You can purchase one to use with your new computer if that would make you more comfortable, but it's not necessary. Just move your finger across the track pad to move the cursor, and tap it to click."

"Track… what?"

Claire took a deep breath. "The track pad. Do you see the rectangle at the bottom of the keyboard?"

"Here?" Mr. Nelson asked, pointing to the space bar.

"No, sir. Here," Claire replied, pointing to the track pad. "See? You move the cursor and click like this." She proceeded to demonstrate by opening up Mr. Nelson's Internet browser.

"What's that you just clicked on?"

"Um… That's the internet, sir."

"Inter… what?"

Thankfully, or perhaps not so thankfully, right at that moment, a set of speakers that were on display across the store exploded, seemingly without cause. They were followed by the explosions of several other electronics, and accompanied by the lights flickering before going out completely. The handful of customers that had been browsing the shop and the two other employees that were currently on the clock screamed and ran for the exit. Mr. Nelson forgot his computer in his haste, which was pretty fast for a man of his age.

"Everybody remain calm!" Claire exclaimed, trying to remember the emergency procedures she learned during her training period. This proved to be of little help, however, because this was one emergency that had, apparently, not been anticipated by the nice men and women who were in charge of spelling out company policies and procedures. It didn't really matter, anyway. These people were hysterical and not particularly interested in proper emergency protocol. They were all nearly out the door, anyway.

* * *

The Doctor stared at his reflection in the dressing room's mirror. He had eventually settled on an outfit and was fairly pleased with the results. His new body was now adorned with a simple pair of dark wash blue jeans, brown leather shoes, a royal blue button-down shirt, and a brown blazer. The tricky part would be paying for these new clothes without any money. He supposed he could pull something off with his psychic paper.

Just as the Doctor was about to exit the dressing room, the lights began to flicker and the sound of a small explosion came from somewhere inside the store. Quickly grabbing his sonic screwdriver from the inside pocket of his blazer, the Doctor threw open the door and assessed the scene in front of him.

People were screaming and running, clearly having no idea of what to do with themselves. Judging by the money scattered across the floor and the oddly disfigured state of the cash register, it was the cash register that had exploded. But what caused the explosion? And why?

"Everybody out!" the Doctor exclaimed as the shop's occupants were nearly all out of the door. "Right, survival instincts," he muttered to himself before running over to the register and scanning it with his sonic screwdriver. The Doctor had been expecting signs that some sort of bomb had gone off, possibly in some robbery attempt. But he quickly noticed that there were two problems with this theory. One was that there was nobody left in the shop but him. Nobody had come to claim any of the currency that now decorated the floor. The other problem was that the readings were showing that the register had been electrocuted. With an extraordinarily strong electrical current, too.

The streets had gone mad. People were panicking and running out of shops, leaving behind unexplained explosions and power failures. Those who had driven into town today were jumping into their cars, and were horrified to discover that their vehicles would not start.

After deciding that he'd gained all of the information he could from this abandoned clothing shop, the Doctor stepped out into the chaos. He took in the scene quickly, knowing he needed to figure out his next move before the situation worsened. Power failures were usually not a huge cause for concern, of course, but this was no ordinary power failure. Ordinary power failures don't cause the explosions of electronic devices.

"I was in the electronics shop, Lawrence! Things were exploding all over the place!" A hysterical woman was saying to her male companion. The Doctor's eyes widened.

"Excuse me, but did you just say electronics shop? Which way would that be, exactly?" the Doctor inquired quickly.

"Well it's… just a few blocks that way," the bewildered woman replied, pointing to her left. The Doctor began running down the street in the direction the woman had indicated. If the problem had to do with electricity, what better place to go than an electronics shop? "But I wouldn't recommend going there now with the state it's in!" the woman called after him.

It wasn't a long run to the electronics shop. The doctor had no problems spotting it, what with all of the smoke in there and all. There had been way more explosions in this particular shop than on any other shop on the street. Bracing himself for the scent of fried electronics, the Doctor ran into the shop… and right into a person.

* * *

Claire had decided to stay behind and take care of the shop in its most vulnerable hour. Sure, it was dangerous, what with all of the unexplained explosions and all, but the shop meant a lot to her. She felt a bit like a captain, going down with her ship.

"What am I doing?" Claire muttered to herself. Had she actually just compared herself to a ship captain? Maybe her mother was right. Maybe she was a bit too obsessed with her job. She had just propped open the door to air out the smoke and was trying to fan the less than pleasantly scented air toward the opening when a large mass zoomed into the shop and knocked her to the ground. Claire screamed, and so did the man that had just landed on top of her.

* * *

The Doctor wasn't entirely sure of what he would encounter upon entering the electronics shop, but he certainly hadn't anticipated crushing a skinny blonde girl and knocking her glasses off.

"Hello," the Doctor said politely before getting the girl and him to their feet and retrieving the fallen glasses. "I'm terribly sorry about that, I wasn't expecting anyone to be in here. What are you doing in here, anyway?"

"I work here," the girl replied proudly. "I'm a store manager. And I'm sorry to say that, in light of recent events, we are currently closed." The Doctor grinned.

"Not about to let a few freak explosions scare you off, eh? I like that. What's your name?"

"Claire Hopewell," Claire replied, pleased that someone had finally recognized her dedication.

"Pleasure to meet you, Claire Hopewell! I'm the Doctor, I'm here to help."

"The Doctor? Surely you've got a proper name? And what kind of doctor?"

"Of course I've got a proper name, doesn't everyone? And I dabble in this and that, you know. The real question is; what's going on with all of these electrical problems?" And with that, the Doctor moved further into the shop to take a look around.

Claire abandoned her attempts at finding answers to her previous questions, and even her attempt at asking him to leave the shop. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was something about this strange man that made her believe he really could help, even though she, a technology expert, was at a complete loss. Maybe it was just the way he took control of the situation.

"Some of the battery powered devices have exploded, not just the ones plugged into the wall. So we know the problem definitely didn't start at the power plant," the Doctor said as he examined a shelf of merchandise.

"What do you think happened, then?" Claire asked.

"No idea," the Doctor replied as he brought his good old sonic screwdriver out again.

"What's that?" asked Claire who had a puzzled stare fixed on the bit of metal with the flashing green light on the end that the Doctor was now holding over destroyed electronics.

"This," the Doctor began, taking a quick sonicing break so that he could show Claire the device properly. "…is a sonic screwdriver."

"Sonic… screwdriver? What does it do?" The Doctor smiled, never tiring of talking about his toys.

"Of course, you're a tech expert aren't you, Miss Manager? Naturally you should be interested in a device like this. It does all sorts of things! It controls technology, does medical scans, even unlocks things, though it doesn't work on wood."

"If it can do all that, then why can't it work on wood?" Claire asked, skeptically. She'd never heard of any such thing as a sonic screwdriver.

"Hey, I don't make the rules! This thing is really cool, you'll never see anything else like it. You know, you ask a lot of questions."

"And what's wrong with that? You won't find answers if you don't ask questions."

"Oh nothing's wrong, I love it!" the Doctor replied, his grin widening. "And you make a good point, Claire Hopewell. We don't seem to be finding any answers here. So we need to find the right questions to ask."

"So, what now?"

"You said it yourself, we start asking questions. Come on!" the Doctor said as he began moving toward the door.

"You want me to come with you?"

"Yeah, why not? I could always use another inquiring mind. Besides, these are technological issues we're dealing with here. Your area of expertise, right?"

Claire grinned, the Doctor took her hand, and they both ran out of the shop and into the street, where the confusion and panic were dissipating and the police were starting to arrive.

"Perfect! Hello, officers. Any insight on what went on here, today?" the Doctor inquired.

"Right now, we're advising everyone to stay away from the street until it is declared safe. We'll be keeping everyone informed as much as we can," one officer replied.

"Oh, I'm going to be needing s bit more of an explanation than that," the Doctor said, pulling out his psychic paper. "Detective John Smith. This is my assistant, Claire Hopewell. Now, what do you know so far?" The officers seemed to give in reluctantly.

"Well, Detective, we're ruling out a mass bombing at this point. We think there may have been some sort of electrical accident involved."

"Oh, it was no accident," the Doctor interjected.

"And how would you know that?"

"Just trust me for the moment. Humor me. So, are there security cameras on this street?"

"Of course!" one of the officers exclaimed, clearly offended by the notion that the police would ever not take every measure to ensure that every citizen is safe.

"Brilliant! Let's take a look at the footage, shall we?"

Claire held back a chuckle as a bewildered police officer led them to a building a few blocks away and around the corner.

"Detective John Smith and my assistant?" Claire whispered, amused.

"Psychic paper. It says whatever I want it to say," the Doctor whispered back.

"But… that's impossible!"

"In human technology, maybe."

"You say that as if it were made by aliens or something."

The Doctor winked in response. Claire raised an eyebrow, but didn't have time to ask any more questions. The officer, who had introduced himself as Officer Dan, had just led them into a rather small room that was filled with various buttons and screens. Officer Dan sat down and pulled up images of the street they'd just been on from several different angles.

"The incident was reported to have happened around 2 o'clock, so I'll start the footage a few minutes before then."

For the first few minutes, nothing of interest happened. It was just a typical day, with people roaming around on their daily errands. Then, when the clock in the corner of the screen read 2:02 PM, confusion struck. Lights went out, and panicking customers ran out into the street.

"I don't know, Detective. I don't see how you can rule out a power failure," Officer Dan said.

"If it's a power failure, then why didn't all of the lights go out at the same time? There was some sort of domino effect. And what about the explosions?" Claire pointed out.

"Well put, Claire. Officer Dan, I'm afraid we've got something much bigger going on here. Would you mind watching it again? And this time slow it down a bit, would you?" the Doctor requested. Having no answers to Claire's questions, Officer Dan obeyed the Doctor's orders. "There, pause it!" Officer Dan paused the footage, and the Doctor pointed to the upper right-hand screen. There was an odd shiny clump in the middle of the street.

"What is that?" asked Claire.

"I'll zoom in on it," Officer Dan suggested, grateful to regain control of the situation, if even for an instant.

The zoomed in image proved to be not a ball of light, but some sort of creature. It had a long, slender body that appeared to be made entirely out of lightning bolts. A smug grin was stretched across its electrifying face.

"I…I should go tell somebody about this," Officer Dan said before running out of the room as if the image on the screen were going to come to life right in front of them. Not that something like that hadn't happened before, but Officer Dan had no way of knowing that.

"Doctor, exactly what is that?" Claire asked as soon as Officer Dan was gone.

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted.

"And your psychic paper, your sonic screwdriver, I've never heard of those! And now there's this thing. We're dealing with aliens here, aren't we? And what about you, with your alien technology? Are you even human?"

"Um, yes to the we're dealing with aliens bit, no to my being human."

"Okay, so you're a real, live alien, then? You're not one of those, are you? Like in disguise or something?" Claire asked, pointing to the as of yet unidentified creature on the screen.

"This is my true form, I promise. I'm just here to help."

"Okay," Claire said after a moment. "So, I suppose our next step would be to find this thing?" The Doctor smiled.

"Right you are."

* * *

The Doctor and Claire stepped out into the street once again.

"The current question is; How do we find this thing?" the Doctor asked as they began to walk.

All of a sudden, a scream could be heard from not too far away. The Doctor and Claire briefly glanced at each other before running off toward the sound, which was closely followed by more screams. When they arrived on the scene, people were as panicky as they had been during the earlier incident. But this time there was a woman crying hysterically. The Doctor honed in on her immediately.

"What's happened? What's wrong?" he asked. The woman looked up at him through tear-filled eyes.

"My-my husband!" she exclaimed before bursting into another fit of sobs. Claire wrapped an arm around the woman, her womanly instincts kicking in.

"Where is he? Where is your husband?" the Doctor exclaimed.

"He-there was this-thing!" the woman sputtered. "I dunno what it was. But it just… electrocuted him or something! He's gone… My husband…" Claire gasped. It would appear that their alien was doing a lot worse than temporarily closing down a few shops.

"Ma'am I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry," said the Doctor. "I'm here to catch that thing so it can't hurt anyone else. But I need to find it. Can you tell me where you saw it?" The woman sniffled and nodded.

"Just down there," the woman replied, pointing down a nearby street. "Then the second left. That's where we saw it, and started to run to get away, but my husband…" The woman burst into tears yet again.

"Thank you. I'm so sorry, I truly am. I'm going to catch this thing, that's a promise," the Doctor said sincerely. He then turned his head to address Claire. "Claire, you stay here with her. Whatever this thing is, it's deadly, and we don't know how to fight it yet."

"Then how do you plan on doing anything?" Claire asked.

"I'll think of something. I'm brilliant, after all." The Doctor and Claire shared a smile.

"Be careful!" Claire called as the Doctor ran off.

"I always am!" he replied as he rounded a corner.

* * *

The Doctor walked along the street where that poor woman said she'd seen the creature. It wasn't there anymore, as he'd anticipated, but he hoped that it hadn't gotten too far. He still didn't know what he was going to do when he ran into the thing, but he certainly didn't have a better plan. In the meantime, he found himself in the midst of an unsettling scene. There were 3 dead bodies, one of which had to be the woman's husband. It would appear that most of the people had gotten away, but there were already 3 deaths too many. The Doctor wasn't about to let there be a fourth.

"Where are you, then?" the Doctor called out into the quiet. It was strangely unpopulated here as apposed to the street he had just been on. Probably because everyone who had been here to see the lightning creature had run over there to get away from it.

After wandering around for a bit with no luck, the Doctor was starting to think that the creature had moved on. Just when he was about to head back to Claire and regroup, he heard screaming.

"Why am I never in the area when the screaming starts today?" the Doctor asked himself as he took off running once again. This was way to much exercise for a brand new body.

* * *

"Tell me about your husband," Claire prompted.

"He's… Well I suppose it's was now. I can't believe he's gone!" the woman, who Claire discovered is named Grace Dawson, exclaimed, tears streaming down her face.

"I know. I'm so sorry. The Doctor is going to get this thing, I know he is."

"Is that the man who was here?" Grace asked. Claire nodded. "Who is he?"

"I don't really know to be honest," Claire admitted. "I've only just met him. All I know is that he seems to understand all of this a lot better than anyone else. And he genuinely cares about helping to protect all of us."

Their conversation was interrupted by screams coming from down the street.

"It's happening again!" Grace shrieked. And she was right.

Turning her head in the direction of the screams, Claire saw the creature that, up until now, she had only seen on a computer screen. And it was terrifying.

"Run! Save yourself!" Claire exclaimed, nudging Grace away from the monster. Claire refused to run. She was the captain, and she would go down with her ship. Maybe she was crazy. Or maybe the short time she had spent with the Doctor, the man that had just ran off by himself to find this thing with no idea of how to stop it, had been enough to remind her of how much she cared about these people.

"Hey!" Claire called to the alien before her. "Lightning Face! What do you think you're doing?" She groaned inwardly. Lightning Face? It would appear that she needed to work on her insults. If she survived this. The creature turned to the direction of her voice.

"What do you think you're doing, Human?" the alien asked, its voice like an electrical hum.

"I'm trying to figure out why you're messing with my species!" Claire replied in a voice that was braver than she felt. The monster laughed, a sickening sound like a series of powerful electric shocks.

"Your species means nothing to the Elecdrones!"

"Elecdrones? Is that what you are?"

"I am an Elcdrone from the planet Toron."

"Alright, Mr. Elecdrone. What are you doing on Earth? I'm assuming you're not just here to go on a killing spree."

"The Elecdrones wish to explore more of the galaxy. But Toron is far from here. We require a refueling station."

"What does that have to do with Earth?"

"This planet is the perfect candidate as it's mostly made out of water."

Claire was suddenly reminded of the reason why hairdryers remind their users not to dry their hair while in the bathtub.

"Are you here by yourself to kill the entire human race? Or are there more of you?"

"I was sent here to scope the place out. To see for myself if this planet will suite our needs. More will be along later, after I relay the message to Toron. I figured I might as well begin the job while I'm here. But you won't have to worry about meeting the rest of us. You'll be long dead when they get here."

Claire squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself as the Elecdrone went in for the kill. She had managed to keep it distracted long enough for the others to escape, and she was proud of that. Her only hope now was that it would be quick and painless. Even as she waited to die, she couldn't help seeing the irony. She was a technological expert, about to be killed by an alien that was made out of electricity.

Suddenly, the thought occurred to Claire that she should be dead by now. She also became aware of a sort of buzzing noise coming from behind her. Upon opening her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of the Electrode frozen in place and flickering like an old television set that's having a hard time finding a signal. And, over her right shoulder, was none other than the Doctor brandishing his beloved sonic screwdriver. Claire let out a relieved chuckle.

"I told you this thing was cool!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"How long have you been standing there?" asked Claire.

"Pretty much the whole time."

"Why didn't you say anything? I was scared to death, I thought I was going to die!"

"Well, you were doing so well, I didn't want to interrupt."

Claire didn't know whether to laugh or slap him. She settled for rolling her eyes.

"And how did you know that would work? I thought you didn't know how to fight this thing," Claire pointed out.

"I told you I would think of something."

"Okay, Alien Boy. What do we do now?" she asked.

"Well, now's the tricky part."

"Because this day's been a cakewalk so far."

"I'm glad you think so, because you've got your work cut out for you."

"Okay… What do I have to do?"

"You're going to have to build some sort of a trap made of strong, reliable materials that don't conduct electricity. And I can't be of much help, I have to keep using my sonic screwdriver so that the Elecdrone won't get away."

"Okay… Okay, sure. Don't worry, Doctor. I'll figure something out. I'll go get some of the other people to help me."

"Hurry, Claire! I don't know how much longer this will work."

* * *

So Claire ran down the street in search of people to help her save the world. This wasn't exactly how she'd planned on spending this day. But maybe this was better than her plans.

"Excuse me!" she called to a small group of people she saw walking down the street. "Look, my friend has caught the alien, but now we have to build a trap for it, and there's not much time, and I was just wondering-"

"Are you crazy?" one of the people interrupted. "I'm getting far away from here! It's not safe! People have died!"

Claire had no more luck with any of the other people she asked. Most of the people had already cleared the area anyway. Why would they stay? All of the shops were now closed, and there was a deadly alien hanging around.

"It looks like I'm on my own," Claire muttered to herself. All she needed was a plan.

First things first; she needed materials. Not wanting to waste any time, Claire walked into the nearest store. Lucky for her, this particular shop sold all sorts of things. There were coloring books, yarn, oven mitts, inspirational decorative pillows, Halloween masks, British flag coasters, hermit crabs… Anything you needed, you could probably find it there. Unless you're looking for an electric alien trap.

Claire walked down one of the aisles, past the rulers, cotton balls, Christmas wreathes, and neon-colored teacups, and was slowly beginning to lose faith. The Doctor was waiting for her. Surely an intelligent woman like herself could think of something.

And then she saw it. There, between the snorkeling equipment and the safety scissors, was a big cooler made of sturdy, durable plastic. That's what it said on the product description, anyway. There was just one problem. It had a padlock on it to discourage theft. At first she thought that wouldn't be a problem, the Doctor could just sonic it open. Then she remembered that the sonic screwdriver was a bit busy at the moment.

Feeling the pressure now, Claire ran to the front desk to try and find the key. She sifted through the desktop items, but, as she expected, the key wasn't there. Then she tried opening the drawers, but they were locked, and her desperate tugging was fruitless. Her plans were falling apart one by one, and she was running out of options. For all she knew, the Doctor would be forced to let go at any second.

"Thnk, Claire, think!" she exclaimed, digging her knuckles into her forehead. The thought occurred to her that maybe she could pick the lock. She'd watched a YouTube video on lock picking once, just in case some sort of lock picking emergency ever came up, as they so often do. "Okay, what do I need?"

A tension wrench and a pick. That's what she needed. But she doubted she could find those in this shop, despite the fact that they seemed to carry everything. Thankfully, Claire remembered that she could make some out of paper clips. And she was pretty sure they carried those. It was just a matter of finding them.

Claire was getting more and more desperate, and was now ripping merchandise from the shelves in an effort to find what she needed. She could feel the pressure of the situation pushing down on her harder than ever. Finally, behind a bag of dog biscuits, she found a box of paper clips. Wasting no time in celebration, she ripped into the box and pulled out two of its contents. After bending them into the proper shapes from memory, she had the tools that she needed to get the job done.

Now it was time to put her lock picking skills to the test. She had never actually tried it before, but she didn't have a better plan at the moment. Nor did she have time to come up with one. So, Claire set to work on the lock. First, she inserted the tension wrench. After putting a bit of pressure on it, she inserted the pick and moved it around a bit, hoping the lock would pop open. No such luck. Claire was getting more and more frustrated as she tried again and again. Finally, on the 5th try, the lock popped open.

"Yes!" she exclaimed before placing the lock into her pocket, grabbing the cooler, and running back to the Doctor as fast as her feet would carry her.

* * *

"Doctor!" Claire called as she approached. "Doctor, I did it! Has he moved?" she asked suddenly. The alien was definitely in a different position than it had been when she left. She was sure of it.

"Yes, yes, I lost my grip on it a couple times! Now, hurry! But be careful, that would be one nasty shock if you touched it," the Doctor replied quickly, strain in his voice.

Quickly and carefully, Claire approached the Elecdrone. Just being this close to it made her blonde hair stand up. She slowed down now, moving forward with the cooler open.

"This will teach you to mess with my planet!" Claire exclaimed before encasing the Elecdrone in the cooler and slamming the lid shut. The Doctor let out a relieved laugh as Claire quickly set the cooler on the ground and put her weight onto the lid so that their alien monster couldn't escape. The Doctor ran over to help her keep the lid shut while she put the lock back on. Then both the Doctor and Claire stared at each other, their exhaustion showing.

* * *

Claire sat on top of the cooler, guarding it. The Doctor had informed her that he'd arrived in some sort of space ship, and was going to go get it so that he could take the Elecdrone away. Claire was imagining some sort of flying saucer or something. What actually happened was way cooler by anyone's standards.

All of a sudden, Claire was aware of a noise unlike any she had heard before. It was kind of an airy, creaky sound. That's the best way she knew how to describe it, anyway. Just a second or two after the noise started, a big blue box materialized out of thin air. It was labeled Police Box, but Claire had never seen the police use anything like this before. Could the Doctor be on some sort of intergalactic police force? Was that why he had saved them all?

The box's door opened, and the Doctor stepped out. Claire recognized the grin on his face from when he was telling her about his sonic screwdriver only that morning.

"What do you think?" the Doctor asked proudly.

"Are you the police?" Claire asked in response.

"What? No. Oh, you mean the box. The TARDIS, that's what it's called by the way, changes based on where it is so that it can take on the appearance of something that won't attract attention."

"But I've never heard of a police box."

"Yeah, well. That function hasn't worked properly for years." Claire grinned and shook her head.

"Whatever, space man. The real question is; how do you expect to ride around in the spaceship of yours with this cooler inside? Your box is tiny enough as it is."

"Oh, don't be so quick to judge a book by its cover! Come have a look." Claire raised an eyebrow and got up off of the cooler. The Doctor stepped back to let her into the TARDIS. Instantly, her jaw dropped.

Claire found herself in a huge room, way bigger than the blue box she'd just been staring at. In the center was some sort of tall tube that was surrounded by loads of buttons and levers. This was a tech enthusiast's dream.

"It's… It's bigger on the inside!" Claire sputtered.

"I love it when people say that!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"But… You could fit the entire outside of your spaceship in here!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Claire, that's impossible. The only way to get the outside of something in the inside of that something is to turn that something inside out, and that's one function the TARDIS can't perform."

"This is amazing! You can drive this thing anywhere?"

"Anywhere through all of time and space!"

"Wait, it's a time machine?"

"Yeah, a time machine… space ship… thing."

"And you just travel around in here all by yourself?"

"Well, not always by myself exactly. Let's go load up that cooler, shall we?" And so they did.

"What are you going to do with it?" Claire asked as they carefully maneuvered the cooler through the door.

"I'm going to take it to a planet made entirely out of sand, where it will live out the rest of its days, unable to hurt anyone ever again," the Doctor replied. Claire nodded. That sounded nice.

"But the rest of them, back on Toron. They're not going to give up, are they?" The Doctor's expression was suddenly serious.

"No," he replied.

"Then we haven't heard the last of this, have we?"

"No." Claire sighed.

"And when we hear from them again, you're going to need some help, aren't you?" The Doctor's mouth formed a bit of a grin.

"I suppose I will."

"Like you said, it's my area of expertise. Who better to help you than me?" The Doctor's grin grew into a wide smile.

"No one. Come with me?"

"Well, if you insist."


	2. Starry Night

Starry Night

"Will you stop looking at your hair?" requested the blonde, thin, annoyed Claire Hopewell. The 12th Doctor was examining his new mop in the reflection of one of the countless controls of his TARDIS, of which Claire couldn't even guess the function. And that was saying something, because Claire knew her way around technology the way most people knew their way around their own homes.

"I'm ginger! I've never been ginger before," the Doctor replied, amazement in his voice.

"What, did you just dye it or something?" Claire asked, puzzled.

"Oh no, I never go near that stuff. All those chemicals! Besides, with my luck, I wouldn't be able to get it even. Anyway, what were you saying?"

Claire sighed. She was still getting used to this strange man who called himself the Doctor. Naturally, she had loads of questions to ask him, but she found getting information out of him difficult at best. And it didn't help that he kept getting distracted by everything, his own reflection included. "Anyway… You're a time lord from the planet Gallifrey and you travel through time and space in a blue box that's bigger on the inside."

"I like to think that I'm a bit more complex than that!" the Doctor interjected. "I can't just be summed up in one sentence."

Claire grinned. "Alright then, Space Boy. What am I missing?"

"Who are you, the official author of my biography? Let's get to know each other the normal way, shall we? An interview's no way to start a friendship."

"What would you say is the normal way?"

"Time together, shared experiences." The Doctor tapped the circular desk with the TARDIS's controls on it. "Anywhere in time and space! Where do you want to go?"

"You're on, Ginger," Claire replied with a grin. Her alien friend had a point. They were in a real time machine, after all. There were more interesting things to concentrate on at the moment. "Stonehenge," she said after thinking for a few seconds. "Let's go uncover the mystery of Stonehenge."

"Ah, been there, done that. You don't want to go there, trust me."

"Okay…" Claire replied. She took another moment to think. "What do all of those buttons and switches do, exactly? Would it be possible for the TARDIS to shrink us down and make us really tiny?"

"What, you mean like the magic school bus?" the Doctor replied, his tone suggesting that Claire had just inquired as to whether or not they could paint the TARDIS with purple polka dots. "Don't be ridiculous! Why would-?" The Doctor cut himself off, his eyes widening momentarily before he started running around the control panel, flipping switches and adjusting knobs. "If I do this, and maybe put this like that…" he muttered to himself.

Claire studied the Doctor's movements intensely, wanting very much to know how all of this alien technology worked. But as far as she could tell, the only functions the TARDIS's controls had were making weird noises and lighting up like Christmas trees.

"There!" the Doctor exclaimed, apparently finished doing whatever it was he was doing. "Take a look outside!"

Intrigued, Claire went to the door and opened it, the wooden door swinging inside the TARDIS in spite of its exterior's suggestion. Upon peering out into the scene before her, she found herself jumping backward a step or two at the sight of a huge spherical object zooming past her. Once the initial giant ball had passed, she could see many more of them zipping around a bit further in the distance.

"What was that thing?" Claire asked.

"That," the Doctor began, clearly pleased with himself. "Was an electron."

Claire's jaw slackened. "An electron? An actual electron? As in the negatively charged particles of an atom?"

"Of course! Do you know of any other electrons?"

"I just saw an electron?"

"Not only that, you're riding one!"

"Riding one?"

"Claire Hopewell! The first human to orbit an atom!"

"I'm orbiting an atom?"

"Are you going to keep repeating everything I say, or are we going to go exploring?"

"Exploring?"

"Claire!"

"Sorry, sorry! It's just that… Wow. I can' believe this is actually happening!"

"Well, I for one am not going to stick around here until your beliefs catch up with you. Come on!" And with that, the Doctor hurried out onto the electron that the TARDIS now called a landing pad, Claire following along behind him.

Once she was outside, Claire could see the even larger spheres that the electrons were orbiting around, the nuclei. The whole system was very impressive and indescribably beautiful. It was mind blowing to think that systems like these were the very things that made up absolutely everything in the whole universe. But thinking of the universe caused Claire to think of something.

"Where are we, anyway?" she asked. "I mean, there isn't any air in the middle of space, right? So where are we?"

"The vast majority of these appear to be hydrogen atoms," the Doctor observed. "My guess is that we're probably in the middle of a star somewhere."

"Wow," Claire whispered, becoming more and more amazed by the moment. "Wait a second, how are we able to breathe? You can't tell me that electrons have atmospheres."

"Of course not, that's the TARDIS's doing. You think a highly advanced civilization would build a device that can travel through time and space without including a method of breathing for trips to places with inadequate atmospheres?"

"No, I suppose not," Claire replied with a grin. It was official. She absolutely had to get the Doctor to share some of his advanced technological secrets. But for the time being, there was exploring to do. Standing there, among the smallest particles known to man, and possibly aliens, the universe never seemed bigger.

* * *

The pair of them decided to walk around a bit, even though it didn't really seem like the view would change too much from one end of the electron to the other (not that this was a problem, Claire was sure that she would never be tired of the scenery there). From the look of things, the Doctor guessed that the electrons were about a fourth of the size of Earth's moon.

"Well, technically it's much much smaller than that, considering your moon actually has a great deal many electrons of its own, of course," the Doctor explained. "But you know, relatively speaking. If we were currently our regular sizes…"

"I get it!" Claire interjected.

"Sorry. I get carried away sometimes."

"I've noticed," Claire replied with a grin. "It's okay. I suppose I do too, sometimes."

"Well that's the cool thing about us nerdy types!" the Doctor exclaimed. "We get to be excited about stuff!" And with that, the Doctor turned around backwards and started skipping. Claire laughed and skipped after him, but remained facing him.

All too abruptly, the Doctor stopped skipping, almost causing Claire to run into him.

"Did you hear that?" he asked, apparently not noticing the way his new friend was attempting to relocate her center of gravity after the sudden stop.

"Hear what?" Claire asked once she had regained her balance.

"Shh!"

"You just asked me-"

"Shh!"

Puzzled, Claire remained silent while the Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out of the pocket of his blazer. He spun around in a circle, his screwdriver doing the buzzy, light-uppy thing it does, and then checked the readings. "That's strange," he muttered.

"What's strange?" inquired Claire.

"The readings are indicating signs of life."

"Yeah, us."

"Oh, other than us, Claire!"

"But, that doesn't make any sense. There's nothing that lives on electrons!"

"That we know of. Nobody's been able to study them this closely before."

Claire tried to think of a counterargument for this, but couldn't. She supposed there really was no true way of discovering whether or not there was life on an electron before now, but it didn't seem very likely. As she'd already pointed out, there was no atmosphere on an electron. Besides, there didn't seem to be any sort of food source anywhere. Actually, electrons seemed to lack everything required to sustain life.

They kept walking, the Doctor pausing periodically to take more readings with his sonic screwdriver, adjusting their direction slightly each time.

"The readings are getting stronger. We're definitely getting closer to their source, whatever it is," the Doctor announced.

Claire couldn't help starting to feel a little bit nervous at this point. She still wasn't entirely convinced that the sonic screwdriver hadn't made a mistake, but there was still that small chance that there really was another living thing on this subatomic particle with them. After all, she was there, wasn't she?

"I don't get it," the Doctor said after completing yet another scan.

"Me neither," Claire admitted.

"According to the readings, there should be loads of living creatures, right where we're standing."

"Again. I'm here, and you're here…"

"And we're not alone, Claire. There's something out there. Something very close, as a matter of fact."

"But Doctor, there are no signs of life anywhere. All I see is bare electron."

"My thoughts exactly!" the Doctor said with a smile. "Which can mean one of two things. Either we're looking for something invisible, or it's somewhere we can't see."

"Or your screwdriver is experiencing technical difficulties, possibly related to the fact that we're standing on an oversized, negatively charged particle."

"Okay, fine. One of three things, if you include the boring one."

"And how exactly do we plan on discovering which of these three things is the case?"

In response (or, at least, the closest thing Claire got to a response), the Doctor laid down on the ground, his ear flat against the electron's surface.

"What are you doing?"

"Shh!"

The Doctor sat up and did yet another scan with his sonic screwdriver, this time with the green, shiny end almost touching the ground.

"Unbelievable!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly.

"What is it?" asked Claire, who was starting to share the Doctor's excitement in the whole thing. How cool would it be to discover life forms on an electron of all places?

"The signals are coming from inside the electron!"

"Inside? How do we get in there?"

The Doctor grinned. "No idea."

"And that's good?" Claire asked, returning his grin.

"That's part of the adventure!"

* * *

Back on the TARDIS, Claire and the Doctor were staring at a large screen.

"Aha! See? There's a whole civilization down there!" the Doctor exclaimed. The screen showed a heat-based image of the inside of the electron. There appeared to be some kind of tunnel system with some little creatures of some sort wandering around. From the image, it was unclear what these creatures looked like, but they were definitely alive. Real living creatures, inside an actual subatomic particle.

"Wow, that should be impossible!" Claire commented.

"Should be, yet here it is!"

"How come you weren't able to see this before?"

"Well, it's easy once you know what you're looking for! You're the one who kept saying nothing could live here. Forgive me if I didn't think to check the core of a negatively charged particle for locals!"

"Faire enough. So, what's our next move?"

"Well, we can't leave without saying hello! We need to find a way down there. And I think, if we can position ourselves over one of the tunnels that are closer to the surface, I can use my sonic screwdriver to get us inside."

"How do we know that these aliens are friendly?"

"How do we know that they're aliens? Earth has hydrogen atoms, too. These particular creatures may not be from your planet, but who says there aren't creatures of the same species in your own home?"

"You have a point there. But how do we know these creatures are friendly?"

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"

"Isn't this a little dangerous?"

"You're not scared, are you?"

Claire thought for a moment. Clearly she trusted this man who called himself the Doctor. If she didn't, she wouldn't have run off with him on an adventure through time and space where nobody else she knew could save her. Besides, he had saved her entire planet. "No," she replied finally. "Let's go!"

The Doctor smiled, took Claire's hand, and the two of them set off in search of adventure.

* * *

"About here should be sufficient," said the Doctor, who had been scanning the ground with his sonic screwdriver in search of hollow places close to the surface. "Are you ready to meet the natives?"

Claire nodded. "Ready when you are, Doctor."

The Doctor traced a circle on the ground with the green end of his screwdriver, which didn't cause any visual affects. However, when he pressed down in the center of the invisible circle he had just drawn, it broke away cleanly, falling into the tunnel below them, revealing that the soniced area had, in fact, been weakened.

Peering into the newly created hole, Claire could see that it wasn't too far of a drop to the tunnel's floor. There weren't any unidentified creatures nearby as far as she could tell, but the electron was only so big. Surely they would run into one soon.

"Splendid, that worked!" the Doctor said by way of celebration. "Ladies first?"

"To our first intergalactic adventure together!" Claire said, raising her nonexistent glass.

"Cheers," the Doctor replied, clinking his handful of nothing against hers.

And with that, Claire dropped down into the tunnel, the Doctor right behind her. The walls of the tunnel seemed to be made out of the same stuff that made up the surface. What were electrons made of? Electron?

"I suppose this way is as good as any!" the Doctor said, starting off in a random direction. He had only taken a few steps when he stopped abruptly, making a noise as if he had run into something, with an animalistic squeal in response.

"What just happened?" Claire asked, completely confused.

"Well Claire, it would appear that I need to amend my earlier statement," the Doctor replied, rubbing his forehead as if it had just participated in a collision of some sort. "There weren't three possibilities, there were four. The living creatures are invisible, the creatures are somewhere we couldn't see them, your ridiculous suggestion that my sonic screwdriver was being effected by interference, or the creatures are invisible and somewhere we couldn't see them,"

"Wait, you mean they're invisible?"

"That's precisely what I mean," said the Doctor as he walked around with his arms outstretched, like somebody trying to find their way in the dark.

"And one of them is…"

"Right here. Or it was, at least. I can't seem to find it now."

"You must have scared him off."

"I'm sure I did. I doubt the creatures down here have ever seen anything that looks like us."

"What did it feel like?" Claire asked eagerly.

"Kind of… rubbery," the Doctor replied. "For lack of a better word."

Claire smiled. "Invisible rubber creatures that live inside an electron. Let's go investigate, shall we?"

The Doctor grinned, and the two of them continued along the tunnel, unblocked by invisible forces.

* * *

After a while, the tunnel grew wider, and the Doctor and Claire found themselves in what appeared to be some sort of room.

"What do you think this is used for?" asked Claire as she stepped into the open space.

"Wait," the Doctor said, stretching his arm out to stop Claire's progress. He took out his sonic screwdriver and did a quick scan of the room. "Just as I expected! There are a few of our friends in here right now."

"What should we do?" Claire asked, lowering her voice to avoid scaring these guys.

"Let's just say hello!" the Doctor suggested, his voice at its normal levels. He crouched down, even though the creature he ran into was apparently big enough for him to hit his head on. "Hello, there! I'm the Doctor, and this is Claire. We're your friends; we're not going to hurt you. Come on over and say hello,"

Claire crouched down next to the Doctor. She certainly didn't want to intimidate her new invisible friends. "Do all aliens speak English?" she asked.

"Oh, there you are, little fellow! Big fellow, I suppose. Pat him, Claire, he's friendly!" the Doctor said as he seemingly petted air. "Anyway, what did you say?"

Curious, Claire reached over to where the Doctor's hand was and felt what looked like emptiness. It was an odd feeling that greeted her fingers, but not an unpleasant one. Mostly it was just the fact that she'd never expected empty space to feel like anything other than air. "I was just asking if all aliens speak English," she replied. "And how do you know this guy is a 'him' anyway?"

"He told me. These guys communicate telepathically," the Doctor said matter-of-factly.

"Wow, that's really cool," Claire said appreciatively.

"And as far as your other question, not everyone on your own planet speaks English. What makes you think all aliens do?" the Doctor pointed out.

"Well all of the aliens I've ever met do. Apparently these guys do as well."

"Oh, that's just the TARDIS. Traveler's privilege. It translates everything inside your head."

"What about the elecdrone? I could understand him, and I hadn't been in the TARDIS yet."

"Well he was an electrical alien. I'm sure you of all people are aware of how much information you humans store in electronic devices. It probably wasn't hard for him to pick up on your language."

"Yeah okay, that makes sense."

"I usually do!"

"Trust me. No you don't."

"That's your opinion, I suppose."

"And surely the opinion of many before me. How come he talks to you, but not me?"

"They do it through contact."

"But I am touching him."

"Not in the right spot. Move your hand over a little more to the right. There's a spot that feels a bit more smooth than the rest of him."

Claire moved her hand over and found the spot that the Doctor had been referring too. The moment her fingers brushed over the smooth surface, she felt the connection. Her brain and this creature's brain were linked, and it was as if they could see down into each other's souls. There was no voice in her head, exactly. It was more like she knew whatever the creature wanted her to know, and he knew whatever she wanted him to know. Everything was genuine and honest. In mere seconds, they were able to get to know each other better than Claire had gotten to know anyone ever before.

From a simple touch, Claire learned that these invisible creatures were a race that referred to themselves as scuzzles (Although, they'd never actually met, or heard of, any other species before. This was merely the term they used to distinguish between themselves and the other inanimate objects they encountered in their environment.). She was currently telepathically linked to a fully-grown male scuzzle named Holton. The scuzzles were a peaceful race, and were glad to welcome the Doctor and Claire into their home. They were as curious of their alien visitors as their alien visitors were of them.

"Thank you," Claire whispered aloud to Holton before severing the connection.

"Well?" asked the Doctor. "What did you think?"

"That was amazing," replied Claire. "Everyone should be able to communicate like that."

"I'm not quite sure that the entire human race is ready for that kind of honesty. Nor many other races, for that matter, including my own."

"I know you're right. It's like in books and movies, when something happens to a character that makes it impossible for them to lie. Sometimes it would make their lives better, like maybe they would tell their crush how they truly felt, and they would end up going out on a date. But sometimes it would tear their whole world apart. Maybe they would tell their boss that they think he's doing a horrible job, and they would lose their chance at getting that promotion they wanted."

"The truth is a dangerous thing, Claire. It takes the right sort of mind to be able to handle it."

As Claire contemplated this, she heard a loud rumbling noise coming from above her, interrupting her thoughts. She and the Doctor looked upward, confused. They heard the rumbling noise again, which was followed by a couple small pieces of the electron ceiling falling the room's floor.

"Move out of the way!" the Doctor ordered, pulling Claire a meter or two backward into the tunnel they'd just stepped out of. A large section of the ceiling came crashing down, leaving a gaping hole that revealed the vast emptiness with the occasional giant subatomic particle zooming by outside. Claire could here the patter of what she hoped were scuzzle feet, carrying their sizable rubber bodies out of the way.

"What just happened?" Claire asked, the speed of her breathing increased.

Before the Doctor had time to reply, two fuzzy, green, three-eyed creatures dropped down through the hole. Claire screamed before she was able to stop herself, and at least six eyes flickered over to her and the Doctor's direction.

"Hello," the Doctor said immediately, taking control of the situation before anybody else had the chance to. "I'm the Doctor, this is Claire, and you two are? I know you're not from around here."

Claire new from her brief connection with Holton that she and the Doctor were the only non-scuzzle sentient beings that the scuzzles had ever encountered. So who were these creatures, and what were they doing here?

"We could say the same about you," one of the green creatures pointed out. "We are unfamiliar with your kind."

"Just as the natives of this planet are unfamiliar with yours. And if I may speak from experience, an entrance of your destructive magnitude was quite unnecessary."

"They are animals, Doctor. Animals that will provide our kind with resources. I don't know where you came from, but these dealings are none of your business."

"That's Officer Doctor to you!" The Doctor said, pulling out his psychic paper. "Officer of the inter-sub-atomic police force."

"I've never heard of your police force," the other green creature replied, bored.

"Yeah, we're a fairly new unit. We came out here to check on the scuzzles of this region, and your presence doesn't add up to our reports."

"What on Seplon is a scuzzle?"

"You break into their tunnels, and you don't even know what they are?"

"What, you mean the flanisoars?"

"Flanisoars?"

"The natives here. That's what we call them."

"They refer to themselves as scuzzles, if you don't mind. How did you know they were here if you've never come here before?"

"We're an advanced civilization, Officer. We have the technology necessary to observe them from the comfort of our own homes!"

"Your own homes which are where, exactly?"

"Seplon, naturally. The much larger civilization that these scuzzles as you call them orbit!"

"I'm going to need your names, species, and purpose if you don't mind."

"Very well, Officer, if we can get along with our business faster. I'll admit that when we came over here, we were not expecting to be greeted with all of this hassle."

"Whether or not you may go on with your business depends on your answers to my questions."

"Honestly, Officer, we're just following orders here. All right, fine. We're malosoars, I'm Tarleez and this is Rotep. We're here on orders from our leader. We wish to claim the flanisoars as a valuable resource for Seplon."

"Valuable resource? You're planning to hurt these gentle creatures?" Claire cut in.

"They are just dumb animals, young lady," replied Tarleez. "They don't even have their own language. Don't tell me you're one of those vegetarian types."

"It would appear that your technology is not as advanced as you thought," said the Doctor. "The scuzzles are, in fact, quite intelligent. They have a simply remarkable form of communication, telepathically, through touch. I'm afraid your leader was mistaken, and I suggest you return home and tell him so. We will clean up the mess you have left behind, but I don't want to hear of this misconception any more."

"I'm afraid you will have to take that up with our leader, Officer."

"Oh, I'm sure that won't be necessary. Surely nobody wishes to harm these kind, extraordinary, intelligent creatures."

"I really think you ought to come speak to our leader, Officer. He's pretty set on our use of your scuzzles here."

"Oh, very well, if I must make the trip. I assume you fine gentlemen will be so kind as to give my partner and myself a lift?"

* * *

"So, this Seplon place is in the nucleus of the atom?" Claire whispered to the Doctor. The two of them were sitting in the extraordinarily comfortable backseat of the malosoarian spaceship.

"It would appear so, yes. Which means they're a much larger civilization than the one on the electron," the Doctor replied.

"Look at that view. It's massive!"

"It's breathtaking. Too bad we're here as ambassadors and not tourists."

"Maybe we can come back someday."

"Yeah, maybe. It depends on whether or not I like these malosoars before this is all over."

"You don't really think their leader would still want to hurt the scuzzles after we explain that he was wrong about them, do you?"

"I don't know, Claire. I've never come across their kind before, I don't know what they're like."

"I hope you two have worked out what you want to say to the leader when you see him," Rotep called from the pilot seat. "He doesn't like his time to be wasted."

"Oh, he'll be sure to make time for me," insisted the Doctor dismissively. "How much longer until we get there?"

"About fifteen oacrons, Officer."

"Right, they have no communication with our universe, they have a completely different time system," the Doctor muttered to Claire. "I guess we'll get there when we get there."

* * *

They did, in fact, get there, and Claire and the Doctor were exposed to the malosoarian civilization for the first time. Unlike the scuzzles, the malosoars lived on top of their subatomic particles. They built vast, sparkling cities with abstractly shaped buildings, some of which appeared to defy physics. Malisoars of different colors and sizes were walking along in the valleys between buildings or zipping through the air on hovercrafts.

Tarleez and Rotep led the Doctor and Claire past a few buildings and into what appeared to be the largest building in the area, and possibly on all of Seplon. They stepped into something that looked like a fancy elevator but turned out to be a teleporter that brought them up to the 58th floor.

"Wait here," Tarleez said before he and Rotep disappeared behind what had looked like a door, but turned out to only be a hologram.

"So, these guys are definitely an advanced civilization," Claire commented.

"It would appear so. Let's just hope they're a reasonable civilization," the Doctor replied.

"He'll listen to you," Claire insisted.

Before the Doctor had time to reply, Tarleez and Rotep reappeared in front of them.

"The Leader will see you now," said Rotep. "Through this door please, officers."

The Doctor and Claire exchanged glances before walking through the not-solid door. Claire gasped as she found herself in a room that, much like the TARDIS, seemed to be bigger on the inside. It probably wasn't, it was just bigger than what she had been expecting. Nevertheless, it was quite a sight to behold. The walls and ceiling sparkled like the buildings outside that made up the city. Official-looking malosoars sat around tables near the edges of the room, talking what was probably business. On the wall that was parallel to the door, there was a huge, glimmering chair, upon which sat a rather large, silvery-colored malosoar who Claire could only guess was the leader she'd heard so much about.

"These are the officers we told you about, Leader," said Tarleez as the four of them approached the chair.

"Yes, hello!" the Doctor cut in, pulling out his psychic paper again. "I'm the Doctor, this is Claire, sub-atomic police force, et cetera. We understand you've taken an interest in the scuzzles that reside in the electron that orbits Seplon."

"My executives informed me that you refer to the flanisoars as 'scuzzles.' Very well, we shall use your term. The scuzzles will be a very valuable resource to us, Doctor. We have done our research, I assure you. They are nothing but dumb animals," declared the malosoarian leader.

"Yes, I've heard all about your little misconception. Before we get into that, what should we call you?"

"As you are the Doctor, I am the Leader."

"Really? Are you sure there isn't anything else I can call you instead? Okay, fine. Listen, Leader. My partner and I have made actual physical contact with the scuzzles. We can assure you that they are intelligent beings with their own form of communication. It's not verbal like you or I speak, it's telepathic through touch. Claire and I have communicated with them ourselves. To harm these creatures would be an act of murder, and I'm sure you don't want to get involved in such a dirty act."

"What do you suggest we do, then?"

"Call off this plan to use the scuzzles as malosoar resources. Your civilization seems to be doing just fine without them, anyway."

"Ah, I'm afraid I cannot do that, Doctor."

"What?" Claire exclaimed suddenly. "You can't be serious! Didn't you hear what he just said? You would be committing murder!"

"I heard him, young lady," the Leader replied calmly. "Is it typical of your species to think that people will suddenly change their mind on something after simply hearing your point of view?"

"Yeah, pretty much," admitted the Doctor, who changed the subject before Claire could get further than the offended expression on her face. "What I don't understand is that you took the time, energy, and technology to do research on the scuzzles before going to collect them and use them for your own purposes. And now that you hear that the conclusions you made based on your research were incorrect, the conclusions that aided your decision to deem these creatures okay to kidnap and use for your own purposes, you haven't changed your mind."

"Doctor," the Leader said with a chuckle. "I can show you our reports. I don't know what you think you discovered-"

"Oh, don't try that one with me! I know what I encountered out there. And I think you do, too."

"What exactly is it that you are implying?"

"You're lying to your men. You want them to think the scuzzles are unintelligent creatures. But why?"

"They've got more morals than you, eh?" asked Claire.

"Leader, is this true?" Rotep chimed in, speaking for the first time since Claire and the Doctor had stepped through the holographic door.

"Now you listen here, Doctor," the Leader said, ignoring his executive's outburst. "You're meddling in things that are none of your business. I've never heard of your so-called police force. Nor have I ever seen any of your kind. You'll be getting out of here and going back to wherever you came from if you know what's good for you."

"Alright, fine! We're not a part of any police force," the Doctor admitted. "But I'll tell you one thing. We are going to protect these innocent creatures. And it's very clear that you're not familiar with me. You have no idea who you're dealing with."

"Guards!" the Leader demanded.

Claire screamed as she felt a fuzzy yet firm hand wrap around her wrist.

"Run!" exclaimed the voice of Tarleez in her ear.

The furry body attached to the hand around Claire's wrist took off, and Claire scrambled along behind it. Suddenly, the world around her was a blur. Fuzzy bodies scampered past her field of vision. Shouts and yells swirled around in the air around her. They'd been captured, her and the Doctor. Surely the Doctor would get them out of it, but then what? Claire didn't have time to think before the world around her went dark, and the noise was cut off. But she was still running, and her furry companion still had her wrist.

"Doctor!" Claire exclaimed once she had had time to process the world around her.

"I'm here," the familiar voice replied, and the Doctor's hand found its way into Claire's.

The fuzzy hand disappeared then, but still they kept running. They turned a corner, and then another. It wasn't long before Claire had no idea how to get back to the room they'd just been in. All of a sudden, they burst out into the open air among the glittering buildings. Claire had to shield her eyes from the light, the source of which she wasn't quite sure. She supposed she was on a star, light made sense. After a few moments, her eyes adjusted, and she could see that her party consisted of herself, the Doctor, Tarleez, and Rotep. So, they weren't captured. And that meant…

"You two saved us," Claire observed gratefully.

"We'll talk later, we should keep moving," Rotep replied quickly.

The four of them continued down the street, though they weren't running this time.

"But, why did you save us?" Claire persisted.

"The Leader lied to us," replied Tarleez.

"We trust you two," added Rotep.

"But you just met us, how come you trust us over your leader?" asked Claire. "Not that I'm not grateful!"

"We figure that you've got nothing to gain by protecting the scuzzles," Rotep said.

"Anybody willing to travel all the way over here and stand up to the Leader like that on behalf of the scuzzles is definitely telling the truth," Tarleez continued.

"Good men! I knew I liked you two!" exclaimed the Doctor. "So where were we, in some sort of tunnel system?"

"You like to talk on the run, do you, Doctor?" asked Rotep.

"I'm always on the run, I've got to talk sometime."

"In here, quickly," said Tarleez, who stopped to open the door to one of the smaller buildings. The other three filed past him and Tarleez shut the door behind them.

The pro-scuzzle party found themselves in some sort of fancy sitting room with comfortable-looking, though interestingly shaped, chairs and couches which were upholstered with some sort of material that Claire had never come into contact before. It was very soft and inviting, and that was enough for her.

"Yes, Doctor," Tarleez replied once the four of them had sat down. "There are tunnel systems running all through that building that only the officials, and, of course, the Leader, know about. Rotep had to create a bit of a diversion so that we could sneak into one, but that won't confuse the guards for long. That's why we had to come hide out here."

"Where are we, anyway?" asked Claire.

"It's a secret hideout belonging to my family. The guards don't know about it, so we should be safe for a while," replied Tarleez.

"Great! A while should be all we need," the Doctor declared. "I'm going to need to ask you two a few questions, if you don't mind."

"We're happy to help, Doctor," Rotep said. "It's clear that something weird is going on here, and it's nothing good. The Leader has deceived us all."

"We'll figure it out, we've got all of the information between the four of us, we've just got to put it together. You two were sent to collect the scuzzles, how much do you know about exactly what the Leader has planned to do with them?"

"He wanted to use their skin, or outer shells, or whatever they are as a durable material to build some sort of ship," explained Tarleez.

"But you've already got ships," Claire pointed out. "Really nice ships. Like the one you drove us here in, the one you took to go collect the scuzzles. How were you planning to transport them back, anyway? The ship was a good size, but it wasn't that big."

"The ship has a gravitational pull function that we would have used to keep a force pulling them toward the ship as we went," Rotep replied.

"Wouldn't that kill them, having them float around in open space like that? I mean, I know you were going to kill them anyway, but even if they were just dumb animals, that seems like a horribly inhumane way to treat them."

"There's also a fairly sizable atmosphere around the ship, they would have survived the trip no problem."

"Wow, you guys have the technology to just create atmospheres wherever you need them? If you don't mind my asking, how do you-"

"Focus, you three!" the Doctor interjected. "An entire electron's population is in danger here. Claire brought up an interesting point about the ships. If you've already got these high-tech ships, why would the Leader go through all of this trouble just to build new ones?"

"These aren't ordinary ships the Leader is planning to have built, Doctor," said Tarleez.

"He's started a new project for underground exploration," Rotep added.

"So he wants to build ships that travel underground? What for?" asked the Doctor.

"Nobody knows except the Leader and the project team," Tarleez replied.

"Then we'll have to figure it out ourselves. Or, at least, figure out a way to make sure he'll leave the scuzzles alone," the Doctor said, more to himself than anyone else.

"Then we'd better make sure he hasn't already sent anyone else out to get them yet," Claire suggested.

"But the men he sent out the first time are right here," the Doctor pointed out.

"Yes, but clearly they aren't the only men he has. And I don't think his men are going to be focused on us for long."

"Oh, don't worry about that. People all over the universe are terrified of me." As soon as he said it, the Doctor's eyes widened.

"You just remember that this is the first time these people have ever heard of either of our species?" asked Claire.

"Yep. These people are inadequately afraid of me. Move out!" declared the Doctor. He quickly got up and headed to the door, his rescue mission team hurrying along behind him.

* * *

They headed back to the government building, this time not walking straight to the Leader and trying to attract less attention. This proved to be a bit difficult, considering that two out of the four were of a species that the locals had never seen before, but surprisingly they didn't seem to be attracting any of the wrong sort of attention. They were outside the building when they saw a fuzzy blue body running toward them.

"Linx!" Tarleez and Rotep exclaimed in unison.

"I've been looking for you guys," said the malosoar who was apparently named Linx. "The guards aren't after you anymore. They never were, really. Never left the main room. I think the Leader just wanted to scare you away."

"I'm so not used to people who don't understand how big a threat I am!" the Doctor declared.

"Now's your chance to teach them!" Claire said quickly.

"Right," the Doctor said absentmindedly. "Linx, is it? What's going right now?"

"There's a bit of a schism happening all of a sudden. It's small at the moment, but a lot of people aren't pleased about being lied to. But nothing's really happening with that, nobody's speaking out too publically just yet," Linx replied.

"What about the Leader? Any idea of his next move?"

"Actually, yes. That's why there's a schism happening at all, the Leader isn't around to keep it under control."

"Not around? Where's he gone?"

"To use his words, he went to 'finish the job himself.'"

"You mean he went to get the scuzzles? Right now?" exclaimed Claire.

"I'm afraid so. There's no telling what will happen when he gets back."

"I'm not about to wait around here to find out," the Doctor said, determined.

"What can we do, Doctor?" Rotep asked. "The Leader's already left."

"We'll just have to go after him. Is there another ship we can take?"

"Yes, but the Leader is tougher than he seems, Doctor."

"So am I. Lead the way."

* * *

Reluctantly, Tarleez and Rotep led the Doctor and Claire up to the rooftop-landing pad, where there were 3 ships identical to the one they'd arrived in.

"Now!" exclaimed the Doctor, clapping his hands together. "I suppose he'll have disabled the ships in order to avoid being followed. How much do you two know about their mechanics?"

Almost as if in reply, there came the sound of a ship starting up.

"Are you two coming, or what?" Tarleez called over to them. The Doctor almost looked disappointed.

"So he underestimates you. So what?" said Claire, trying to raise his spirits. "Use that to your advantage. Just don't make the same mistake he did. Don't underestimate him. We don't really know what he's capable of."

The Doctor smiled in response. "Come on, then. We've got a species to save! Hazzah!"

"Hazzah?" Claire asked, laughing.

"I was thinking I need a new catch phrase. Hazzah!"

"Hazzah!"

* * *

"We're almost there, Doctor," Rotep said from the pilot's seat. "Have you got a plan?"

"Not at all, no," the Doctor said casually.

"Great! We're all doomed," Tarleez commented helpfully.

"Oh, just keep your eyes on the… space, you two! Everything's under control," Claire said defensively. "Right, Doctor?"

"Yes, yes, I'm working on it! Some people don't understand how difficult it is to always save the day without the use of lethal weapons."

"Why don't you have any weapons? You have a time machine, surely you have weapons."

"Don't believe in weapons. They cause way more problems than they solve."

"Coming in for the landing!" announced Rotep. They began their descent, and soon they were once again standing on the surface of the electron.

The first order of the business seemed to involve the Doctor taking out his sonic screwdriver and taking yet another scan of the area. "This way," he said before running off, the others following closely behind him.

Not too far off into the distance they came upon the Leader's ship, and an irregularly-shaped hole where the Leader must have blasted himself into the tunnels. Weak screeches of terrified scuzzles echoed along the tunnel walls from deep within the electron. Claire wasn't sure whether or not the Leader was aware of the fact that the scuzzles are invisible. She could only hope that he was unprepared for this, as it was truly their only defense against this man. Or, at least, it was until they had gotten there.

"The good news? We're definitely not too late. The bad news? A giant, fuzzy person is scaring our innocent friends to death. We'd better hurry," the Doctor evaluated.

The four of them dropped into the tunnel and hurried off in the direction of the animalistic noises.

* * *

Their progress was halted when they ran into a scuzzle who was heading in the opposite direction.

"Why is it that we always find them that way?" asked the Doctor, who had bounced off of the scuzzle and onto the floor.

"At least this one didn't run away," said Claire, who had been in the back of the group and had, once again, avoided a collision with one of those gentle creatures. She stroked the scuzzle's rubbery skin and then placed her hand on its communication spot. "It's Holton!" she announced after a moment. "The Leader's here, obviously. He's trying to round up the scuzzles, though he's having a hard time because he can't see them."

"Wait, they're invisible?" Tarleez cut in. "There's one right here? That's what we ran into?"

"I told him about the Leader's plan, and that we're here to help," Claire continued, ignoring Tarleez.

"And help we shall. Where is the Leader now?" asked the Doctor.

"Down this tunnel, we take a left down another tunnel, and then the second right. That's where Holton saw him last, not too long ago."

"Excellent. Thank Holton, send him my best, and then let's go stop an evil malosoar."

* * *

"Stupid invisible creatures," the Leader was muttering to himself. "I'm going to have to have a little chat with my research team when I get back." Why was he surrounded by such idiots? How did anybody expect him to get anything done when the only help he got was from such imbeciles?

The Leader was attempting to locate, and attach harnesses to, the flanisoars so that he could bring them back to Seplon and succeed where his men had failed. This proved to be way more difficult than he had anticipated, however. At this point, the smart thing to do would be to head back, regroup, figure out a more efficient way to go about this, and then send back some competent men later, if he could find any. But he was too proud for that. He didn't know who this Doctor thought he was, but the Leader wasn't about to give him the satisfaction.

"We meet again, Leader," said a voice to his right. Speak of the devil. "Having a bit of trouble here, are you?"

"Do you expect me to be impressed, Doctor?" the Leader countered. "You outran my guards and convinced a couple of my men to give you a ride. You probably think you've really accomplished something, don't you? But you haven't done anything yet. I'm far worse than all of my men combined!"

"I warn you not to underestimate me again. It was your own carelessness that made it so very easy for me to get this far. Clearly you don't know what you're dealing with, any smart man would be a bit more cautious in the face of an unknown enemy. Give up now, leave these innocent creatures alone."

"Clearly it is you who doesn't know who he's dealing with. I always get what I want!"

"Not this! Not today!" And with that, from his jacket pocket he pulled out some sort of silver object with a green tip.

The Leader laughed. "What is that? Some sort of lighting device?"

"This? A bit of advanced weaponry from my home planet. Surrender now and I won't have to use it."

"You're bluffing, Doctor! That little hunk of metal of yours is probably just the key to start up your spaceship!"

In response, the Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the ceiling. It buzzed and the green end glowed, and then a small section of the tunnel ceiling crumbled to the floor. "That's one powerful startup."

"Alright, Doctor. You've proved your point. But what makes you think your little device here is any match for me?"

"What makes you think it isn't? Are you willing to take the risk?"

The Leader chuckled. "Perhaps I did underestimate you. But there's one flaw in your little plan. Just as I don't know you, you do not know me. Neither of us can truly know if your weapon is a match for my own power. The risk is yours as well."

"The difference being that I am willing to take that risk. Unlike you, I have something worth fighting for. I care about these creatures and will put myself in danger if I have to. You fight for yourself, for your own personal gain. All you care about is that which benefits you. For you, the risk isn't worth it. Step aside, and I promise you that you won't be harmed."

"Well played. But you forget to facto in the fact that I am very confident in my own abilities, and never back down from a challenge. I'd rather die here and now than give myself up like a coward. Do your worst, Doctor."

"Now!"

The Leader felt something large and strong wrap around him, binding him. He tried lash out, his arms straining against the thick, leathery material as it tightened around his furry body. Frustrated, he cried out in anger. However, like most cries of anger, it got him nowhere.

"Hazzah!" cried Claire from behind the Leader, Tarleez and Rotep on either side of her.

"Hazzah!' the Doctor exclaimed in response.

* * *

Several hours later, the Doctor and Claire were saying their goodbyes to the scuzzles. With considerable effort, they'd managed to return the Leader to Seplon, though he was no longer the leader there. The malosoars began to call him by his given name, Pixi. In retrospect, Claire could understand why he had insisted on being called the Leader.

Upon hearing the news that Pixi had been captured, the schism quickly turned into a full-scale rebellion, albeit a peaceful one, in which the malosoars overthrew their leader and made him a prisoner. Deciding that their current system of government is too susceptible to tyranny, the malosoars decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to revamp their system. This would take time, of course, but Tarleez and Rotep were chosen to head the committee due to their bravery that made it all possible. They also planned to make peace with the scuzzles, and even offered them their protection.

Tarleez and Rotep drove the Doctor and Claire, who had been greeted with a hero's welcome out on Seplong, out to the electron one last time. Claire hugged them both and the Doctor shook their furry hands, thanking them for all of their help and wishing them the best of luck in their efforts to turn their sub-atomic particle over a new leaf.

"Seplon will never forget you two," said Rotep.

"We'll be sure to honor you both in our new and improved society," Tarleez added.

"Thank you both for your bravery, it wouldn't have been possible without you," said the Doctor.

"Seriously, you guys acted out against Pixi," Claire stifled a giggle as she said the name, "…seemingly without a second thought. Thank you for helping us save our new friends."

"It was our pleasure, Miss," Tarleez and Rotep replied.

Although it was sad to see them go, it was even sadder to say goodbye to the scuzzles. They were very grateful to the Doctor and Claire for their protection, and excited to make peace with the malosoars. The Doctor thanked them for their own bravery in the whole affair, recounting the story (in a strange but awesome telepathic sort of way) about how they had been formulating a plan as they walked along the tunnels toward Pixi. They'd met a few scuzzles along the way, who bravely agreed to allow Claire, Tarleez, and Rotep to hide behind their invisible bodies so that they could sneak behind Pixi while the Doctor distracted him, and attack from behind.

"It was like you said," the Doctor said to Claire as they walked along the electron's surface toward the TARDIS. "We used his underestimating of me to our advantage."

"Without underestimating him," Claire added.

"You know what? We make a pretty good team."

"And this is definitely way better than an interview as a method of getting to know each other."

"I'm glad you think so. On to our next adventure, then?"

"Hazzah!"

"Hazzah!"


End file.
